We've Got Contact
by M306117
Summary: Adopted from Stryom. A mishap prevents the Autumn from reaching its intended destination, stranding it and her crew in an uncharted system. In need of effecting repairs, all non-essential crew are sent to a strange planet and make contact with a friendly alien civilisation but the Covenant isn't far off, and they're out for blood...
1. Chapter 1

**AN: ****I don't own My Little Pony or Halo. They belong to Hasbro and Bungie/Microsoft/343 Industries respectively.**

Chapter One

**1547 Hours, September 12, 2552 (Military Calendar) / UNSC Cruiser **_**Pillar of Autumn**_

'Cortana, all I need to know is did we lose them?'

Captain Keyes paced in front of the tactical display on the _Autumn_'s bridge, scowling at the readout of his ship.

Armour was down in most places to barely twenty percent, meaning a single lucky plasma torpedo would gut them, and they only had two rows of Archer missiles left. Their main weapon, the magnetic accelerator cannon or MAC for short, had a depolarized capacitor and refused to charge, leaving them with minimal offensive capabilities.

Auto-cannon ammunition was down to ten percent and they only had two Shiva-class thermonuclear missiles left, as well as whatever Longswords had managed to survive.

Decks eleven, twelve, and thirteen were, for the most part, gone, taking with them huge supply of advanced weaponry intended for the _Autumn_'s original mission to capture a Covenant Prophet and negotiate a ceasefire with the alien alliance, though the majority of the hull breaches had been sealed.

It astounded Keyes that the _Pillar of Autumn, _an obsolete model of ship retired decades ago, had managed to survive such a beating. He put it down to the unique and costly design of her superstructure, composed of nothing more than bracing that honeycombed the entire ship, enabling it to survive ungodly amounts of damage.

But that was just about the only good piece of news the senior naval officer had heard today.

'For the moment,' Cortana said, her ghostly avatar flickering into existence above a holotank located near the tactical display.

She was a smart AI, a construct created by the UNSC and designed to infiltrate any electronic vault she came across though would often turn her skills on the UNSC's own system ad wreak havoc when she grew bored. And she often grew bored.

Today, though, Cortana was focusing on Captain Keyes as he paced, tapping into the numerous cameras and sensors installed around the bridge and adjusting her hologram to follow him accordingly.

'We're approximately one week from our intended destination. If the Covenant want to find us that badly, it won't take them long to backtrack on our proposed route and find us. The Covenant ships have always been faster.'

Keyes sighed, nervously fiddling with his grandfather's pipe but put it away. It would set a bad example for the crew to see their captain nervous.

'So, where do we stand?' he asked, approaching Cortana's holotank.

It was a futile gesture. Cortana, essentially, was the _Pillar of Autumn. _She could broadcast her voice anywhere, see anything o or off the ship, she could even control everything.

But having a sort of physical manifestation of the AI, somewhere for Keyes to direct his attention, it made the whole thing easier to deal with.

'The engineering deck is finishing its damage assessment,' Cortana said. 'Preliminary findings point to a failure on one of the power couplings to the Slipspace drive. They're speculating it came loose or just shut down completely, and the power flow was sent back into the reactor plant itself where it fried some of the more delicate pieces of equipment.

'All three reactors experienced a spike in power output, well beyond what they're currently capable of, doing more damage to themselves in the process before a failsafe kicked in and shut them down.'

'And that leaves us where, Cortana?' Keyes asked.

'Reactor one is gone completely, no hope of repairing it,' she said, adjusting the tactical display to show an assessment of the three reactors. One was completely black while the other two were in the red, one slightly darker than the other.

Keyes noted the darker of the two was the main reactor.

'Reactors two and three, however, remain functional,' the AI continued. 'Barely. Two can provide barely thirteen percent its original output and Three can give us fifteen percent. The engineering crew think they should be able to get reactor two to thirty-five percent or better by scavenging parts from one and three, but...'

'But... what, Cortana?' Keyes pressed, levelling the AI's hologram with a stern gaze.

'But... they'd need to completely power down all the reactors and turn off as many non-essential systems as possible,' she said. 'Given the scope of the damage, our emergency backups wouldn't last for the full duration of the repairs. They need as much shut down as they can before proceeding.'

Keyes hummed in thought, fiddling with his pipe in his pocket, and said, 'Which systems are they considering non-essential at this point?'

'Everything except life support,' Cortana said after a moment's pause, looking off into to distance as she pulled up the damage assessment report. 'And even then, they'll need that reduced as much as possible.'

'Including cryo?'

'Yes,' Cortana said then, sounding hurt, added, 'They also consider _my_ systems to be non-essential_._'

'I didn't realise we had such limited backup power,' Keyes said as the AI brought up a more comprehensive list on the display that seemed, to the captain, to include just about every system the _Autumn _contained.

'Well, most of our backup batteries and solar panels were damaged or destroyed during the Battle of Reach,' Cortana explained. 'And having nearly 1,300 cryo tubes running, a brilliant AI overseeing everything, and the life support systems keeping everyone not frozen alive, what few reserves we have left are going to get depleted pretty quickly.

'The engineers are predicting that to make what little power we'd have left when the reactors go down last, everything must go.'

The captain withdrew his pipe and tapped the tip against his lips, thinking.

'So we have to find a way to keep over a thousand people alive without life support or cryo,' he said. 'Options?'

'We could place everyone into the lifepods,' Cortana began. 'They have enough internal air and supplies for a week, and any additional supplies can be taken in with the Marines, and in case of a catastrophic system failure in a snap.'

Her avatar did just that as if to demonstrate her point.

'They might go stir crazy being unable to enter the _Autumn _despite being so close to it,' Keyes countered, waving the idea away with a shake of his head. 'And if they get launched towards the end of the week, their air supply will run out after a few days. What else?'

'I thought you might say that,' Cortana said. 'so using the ship's long range sensors, I located two planets in goldilocks zones around their respective stars. Size, rotation, and spectrum analysis indicates they have atmospheres, possibly ones capable of sustaining human life.'

'Show me,' Keyes said.

He stood full on to the tactical display, watching as Cortana manipulated the images to show her findings.

The fuzzy images of two planets winked into existence on the screen, overlaying everything else, and Keyes scrutinised them closely.

One was a rusty brown in colour, a few faint wisps of cloud decorating the surface, with the very occasional patch of murky green which he took for either a massive forest, or a dirty body of water.

'Tell me what you can about that one,' Keyes said, pointing at it with the tip of his pipe.

'Of course,' Cortana said. 'Analysis of the atmosphere shows it to have a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere similar to Earth but scans indicate the presence of heavy pollutants and other greenhouse gases which, if I'm correct, would mean the daily temperature is going to be pretty high. Even at night it's going to be warm.'

'Suitability for Marine deployment?'

Cortana shrugged. 'In a pinch? It'd be okay if we had to go down there but if the repairs go on longer than expected, the Marines would face heatstroke and respiratory problems due to the poor air quality.'

Keyes nodded. 'We'll put that in the maybe pile.' He gestured to the other planet. 'What about this one? Is it safe?'

'Of course,' the AI said. 'I always like to save the best for last.'

The screen changed again to display the other planet, showing Keyes and the nearby crewmembers a mosaic of green and white, with abundant cloud cover that made it reminiscent of how Earth had looked years ago.

The captain couldn't help but compare the image with that of the first picture of Earth taken from the moon during the first landings on the closest celestial object to Humanity's home world.

'Size and rotation indicate, from what I could gather, Earth-norm gravity and analysis of the atmosphere shows it too has a nitrogen-oxygen composition,' Cortana said. 'In fact, the oxygen content is marginally higher than that of Earth, approaching twenty-five percent of the total gases present.'

'Average temperature?'

'Mild,' Cortana said. 'I haven't detected any pollutants in high enough quantities to suggest global warming has taken hold. This place would be prime colonisation material if we'd found it.'

'I'm sensing a but here, Cortana,' Keyes said.

The AI smirked. 'You can be so cynical at time, captain. Though yes, you're right. There is a but.'

The naval officer just waited, staring at Cortana's hologram.

'Right,' she said. 'I detected several...irregularities concerning the planet's orbit, and the energy given off by it. Not enough to cause alarm or make it unsuitable for long term deployment. Just irregular.'

'Yes, but irregular how?' Keyes pressed, resuming his pacing.

'Well, for starters, the star this planet is orbiting doesn't seem big enough to exert a powerful enough gravity well to keep the planet inside the sweet zone of sustaining life. As far as I can tell, something is keeping the planet in place. Something artificial.'

'Is that going to be a problem, Cortana?'

'I don't think so,' the AI said. 'As for the energy reading, while it is unusual and we know nothing about it, it could help keep us hidden from the Covenant if they come snooping around here.'

Keyes paused before the holotank. 'How?'

'It'll hide the energy signature of the _Autumn,' _Cortana said. 'Running on extreme low power and limiting radio communications to groundside forces will, in combination with the energy field, effectively hide us from long range scans.'

'I'm assuming the same can't be said for short range?'

Cortana nodded. 'Even the Covenant can look out of a window to spot us. Provided their ships have any.'

A humourless grin tugged at Keyes' mouth, recalling some of the dissections ONI had done to damaged Covenant ships following 'successful' battles against the alien juggernaut, how their ships had the bridge located deep inside, protected by the hull and shields.

Keyes cast his eyes almost involuntary at the huge domed bubble that sat at the very front of the bridge slung underneath the _Autumn_'s bow superstructure.

It offered an impressive view of space and of planets they happened to be orbiting, but a lucky plasma bolt or strike by a Seraph, the Covenant's equivalent to the Longsword, would shatter it and expose everyone on the bridge to the merciless vacuum of space, killing them all.

'How far away are from this planet?' he said, nodding his head at the second planet Cortana had selected.

'About half a day using our slipspace drive,' she said. 'Engineering thinks we can manage a short jump once they've gotten a temporary patch put into place. After that, though, they'll need to start repairs in earnest before we can do another slipspace jump.'

'Very well, Cortana,' Keyes said, moving from the tactical display to stand behind the two pilots as they sat suspended inside the bubble. 'Transfer the location to NAV. Ensign Lovell, plot us a course to this planet and get ready to put us into orbit.'

The ensign, the newest addition to Keyes' bridge crew, acknowledged the order and began tapping on his keyboard as Cortana fed the information to his station.

There was a brief sensation of movement as the _Autumn'_s damaged reactors routed power to the two massive engines located on the cruiser's aft section, pushing the one-hundred thousand ton vessel to the necessary speed for a slipspace jump.

If they were too slow, the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight generators would fail and they'd be stuck in this sector of space.

As they moved off, Keyes gave another command.

'Begin thawing out all remaining personnel in cryo,' he said. 'I want everyone ready for immediate deployment.'

'Everyone, sir?' Cortana asked as she accessed one of her many subroutines, this one dedicated to overseeing all functioning cryo pods onboard.

'Everyone,' Keyes confirmed. 'And check over the HEV deployment system. If we need boots on ground, I want them down there quickly.'

'Yes, sir,' Cortana said, selecting and using another subroutine while simultaneously priming all the cryo pods for thawing, sending the updated release codes for one pod in particular to Cryo Two.

If Captain Keyes wanted boots on ground, he'd certainly want the inhabitant of Cryo Two awoken and ready for deployment immediately.

**2113 Hours, September 12, 2552 (Military Calendar) / UNSC Cruiser **_**Pillar of Autumn**_

The Master Chief blinked away the disorientation of being woken from cryogenic sleep, the last few images of a nightmarish dream fading to a disjointed memory half-remembered, and quickly got his bearings.

He was onboard the _Pillar of Autumn, _specifically in one of the many cryo bays that peppered the old and battered ship, and that they had fled from a massive and crushing defeat what he had considered his home, the planet of Reach, where most if not all of his fellow Spartan brothers and sisters had died defending the generators that had powered orbital MAC cannons, or had been glassed from orbit as the Covenant ships closed in for the kill, unleashing the hellish plasma weapons on the defenceless ground forces.

The thought of his Spartans, his family, being destroyed by a foe they couldn't hope to stop, as well as a change in the air he was breathing, brought strength to his arms and the Master Chief Petty Officer, SPARTAN-117, pushed himself up from the plastasteel shell of the cryo tube and drew his first full breath in over three weeks.

Before him was a naval crewman, a chief petty officer according to the insignia on his service tunic, who looked equal parts petrified and awed at the sight of the Spartan, clad head to toe in the pearlescent green armour codenamed MJOLNIR, though it might have been down to the fact it was charred, battered, and covered in alien blood the Chief hadn't had time to wash off yet.

Or perhaps it was the fact the Chief towered of the crewman, easily dwarfing the man with his height of seven feet.

The petty officer snapped out of his daze and said something about freezer burn while up in an observation room, another technician, this one a petty officer third class, began testing and bringing back online the Chief's suit's various systems.

'Vital signs look good,' the man said, his neural transponder identifying him as Sam on the Chief's head's up display. 'No freezer burn. Bringing his health monitors online now.'

The chief petty officer, Thom, waited while a segmented bar appeared in the upper right of the Master Chief's HUD, slowing going from red to blue as it assessed the overall physical condition of the Spartan's body and deeming it healthy, though his skin itched from wearing his suit into cryo.

Covered skin reacted badly, coming out raw and blistered, but the Chief banished the pain from his awareness as the two tech officers ran him through a series of tests, bringing his battle armour online, including the recharging shield it possessed and calibrating the targeting systems.

'Alright, everything reads normal,' Sam announced once the tests were complete. 'Neural lace working perfectly, no feedback errors.'

The intercom crackled to life and the commanding voice of Captain Keyes filters through the numerous speakers spread throughout the room.

'_Bridge to Cryo Two. Send the Master Chief to the bridge immediately._'

Thom opened his mouth to object, saying the weapons diagnostic still needs to be run, but Keyes cut him off.

'_On the double, crewman.'_

'Aye, aye, sir.' Thom turned to the Chief. 'Skipper seems jumpy. We can get to the weapon test later.'

The Master Chief nodded and followed Thom as he headed to a pair of doors set into the wall, both halves sliding apart as they approached with a mechanical hum.

'I'll leave the self-diagnostic running,' Sam called out from the observation booth as they left.

Outside Cryo Two, the Spartan and the Tech Officer saw the corridor was abuzz with activity as Marines and Navy alike rushed around getting things ready, a total ship-wide evacuation the Master Chief guessed judging by the mass of supplies being carried towards the hangar bays.

Thom just shrugged when the Chief glanced down at him, sensing the question, and the duo waded into the organised chaos, heading to the bridge.

From the speakers came Cortana's voice as she directed units to specific hangars and Pelicans, sounding calm above the clamour of voices as armed and armoured Marines jostled past the naval personnel dressed only in their service tunics and, in a few cases, carrying only a pistol in a thigh holster.

A few said hello to Thom as he went by, then stare in awe as the Master Chief followed him, while the Marines were more vocal in greeting the Spartan, calling him sir even if they outranked though, mainly, it was out of respect than military protocol.

He greeted them back quickly, aware he was needed on the bridge, and moved on, heading through the mess hall and an armoury, before finally arriving at the centre of operations for the titanic ship.

Thom stayed with the Master Chief right up until the entrance then broke off, heading back to the cryo bays to continue thawing out everyone that wasn't already thawed.

Watching him go on his motion tracker, the Spartan ducked into the bridge and walked past naval crewman hunched over their terminals, overseeing everything onboard the _Autumn _and watching for anomalies.

Out the front viewport he saw a far off planet that was slowly, but surely, getting closer with each passing minute, bringing a surface covered in lush greens and deep blues towards the ship.

Was this their final destination, the Chief wondered, but a quick check of his mission clock showed they were only three weeks from Reach.

He shook his head clear of the distraction. Captain Keyes would no doubt fill him in.

From the viewport, the Master Chief headed to the captain's station where Keyes himself was stood, scrutinising a tactical display that showed a readout of the ship and of the approaching planet. Beside him was Cortana's hologram, her ghostly purple form turning to face the approaching Spartan.

Keyes did as well, either sensing the Spartan's presence or noticing Cortana's movement, and looked the Chief full in the face, hand held out to shake.

The Master Chief shook it, taking care not to crush the captain's hand with his augmented strength.

'Captain Keyes,' he said, letting go.

'Good to see you, Master Chief,' Keyes said as the Spartan came to parade rest. 'Things aren't going well. The engineers did their best but the _Autumn _sustained more damage than we thought. A power coupling came loose during slipspace and damaged the reactors. They're saying we've got to offload as many people as we can so they make more suitable repairs.'

He turned to the tactical display again but Cortana kept her attention on the Chief.

'Sleep well?' she asked.

'No thanks to your driving,' the petty officer said. 'But yes.'

A smile appeared on Cortana's face. 'So you did miss me.'

The Chief said nothing back, focusing on the display, but he did nod slightly.

'Now, we've identified a planet containing an atmosphere capable of supporting human life,' Keyes continued once Cortana and the Master Chief had finished greeting each other. 'But, it has an unusual energy signature coming off it, and Cortana seems to think it's part of a system used to keep this planet in a stable.'

'I've isolated three, possibly four, separate points on the planet that posses a higher concentration of the energy,' she said. 'They could be machines of some kind, likely gravity tethers, keeping the planet in place but with just the limited sensors the _Autumn _has, I won't know until we're down there.'

'Which is where you come in, Chief,' Keyes said, turning to face the Spartan. 'I'm sending you and a company of ODSTs to the planet where you'll make camp and see if the planet is suitable. If it is, set up a landing zone for follow up forces to arrive and scout out the immediate area.'

'Yes, sir,' the Chief said with a single nod.

Beside him and Captain Keyes, Cortana cupped her chin deep in thought, saying, 'That's unexpected.'

'What?' Keyes said, facing the screen again as the Chief just looked over his head.

'The _Autumn_'s long range cameras just got close enough to give us visuals of the surface,' the AI said. 'And do they have a story to tell.'

Onscreen, hazy images of cities and towns came into focus on the display, three of which overlapped with the energy sources.

'We may be on the verge of making contact with a whole new alien race,' Cortana said as the images continued to sharpen up, showing much more detail.

'If that's the case then,' Keyes said as individual blocks were definable in the cities, one of which seemed to be clinging to the side of a mountain, while another was clustered around a giant crystal castle. Both contained an energy source, but the third source was in a more rural town, a stark contrast to the others. 'Maybe dropping a whole company of ODSTs wouldn't be the best way to make contact.

'Master Chief, your opinion?'

The Master Chief paused, thinking back to his first encounter with an alien and how that had gone. It had cost him the life of his best friend, Samuel-034, and strengthened his resolve to protect all of humanity.

Since then, each encounter with the Covenant had resulted in more deaths, few wins, and the growing sense the UNSC couldn't win the war.

'Sir,' the Spartan said. 'If you're hoping to make contact with the inhabitants of this world, it may be best to send in a small recon team first to gauge their reactions to having a larger Marine presence. I'd recommend a fireteam at the very least to first secure an LZ, then follow up with a Pelican to deliver supplies.

'If things go south, either try to extract the fireteam or deploy all remaining ODSTs to back them up.'

'Agreed, Chief,' Keyes said. 'Head to the armoury and sort yourself for a combat drop, then head to the HEV launch bay. We'll launch you in-' He checked with NAV on when they'd come into orbit. '-fifteen minutes. Your orders are to secure an LZ, then carry out reconnaissance on the local population. Do not engage unless fired upon first, or if you feel threatened in any way. Is that clear?'

'I understand.'

Keyes nodded then turned to Cortana.

'You're going too,' he said to her. 'Leave behind a subroutine or similar to help the engineering crew keep the _Autumn _in a stable orbit when they power everything down, then sort yourself for a hard transfer.'

There was a pause as the AI took one last look around the bridge, and likely everything beyond it. The _Autumn _was her physical body, her corporeal manifestation, and the Master Chief guessed she was reluctant to leave it all behind.

'Yank me.'

Keyes tapped in a few commands on the controls, and on the holotank, then withdrew a data chip from the pedestal, holding out to the Spartan.

'Good luck, Master Chief,' Keyes said.

The Spartan plucked the data chip from his hand and inserted it into one of the free sockets his armour possessed, feeling Cortana's familiar and welcome presence seep into his mind, feeling like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water into it before the sensation faded, leaving behind him and the AI.

'Your architecture isn't that much different from the _Autumn_'s,' Cortana observed.

'Don't get any funny ideas,' he replied.

**2155 Hours, September 12, 2552 (Military Calendar) / UNSC Cruiser **_**Pillar of Autumn**_

Staff Sergeant 'Monty' Montgomery made his way down one of the _Autumn_'s many corridors, a full combat load strapped to his armour, heading towards the HEV deployment room that the cruiser possessed.

He, and most other Helljumpers, referred to it as Hell's Waiting Room because once the pods it contained were dropped into battle, they endured re-entry and became almost unbearably hot, before touching down and depositing the soldier inside into what was, usually, intense combat.

Becoming an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper took a special kind of crazy to sign up and as it turned out, Monty had the right type of craziness to apply.

He had been in that most prestigious and dangerous military outfit for the best part of seven years, meaning he was an eleven year veteran of the Human-Covenant War, meaning he was one tough and crazy son of a bitch, and had a body covered in scars to back his claims up.

The Helljumper passed by more swabbies and jarheads, finally stopping before the double doors that led into the HEV deployment room where his fireteam was already present, alongside the Master Chief and Captain Keyes.

Monty glanced curiously at the Spartan and the Old Man then sidled up to his team, opening a private COM channel amongst them.

'Any idea what's going on?' he asked.

Redmond, the greenest of the squad with only four years combat experience under his belt, shrugged.

'Swabbies are being swabbies, Staff,' the young private said. 'Saying nothing, waiting for everyone to arrive, being squids. Same shit, different drop.'

'Eloquent as always, private,' Monty said as he looked at Private Donny and Lance Corporal Suggs, both Helljumpers slouching against the walls. 'You guys get anything?'

'Negative,' Suggs said in that monotone and bored voice of his that never wavered, even in combat. It said something about the man's demeanour to remain calm and collected, even as thousands of plasma bolts flew directly overhead amid florid curses from Elites and Brutes.

Donny did the same as Redmond and shrugged as Captain Keyes finally took notice of the recent arrival, tucking an old pipe away into his dress tunic.

Beside him, the Master Chief remained near motionless and silent, towering over the senior naval officer and the four ODSTs, an MA5B clipped to his back and a pack filled with food and supplies slung over one shoulder.

'Gentlemen,' Keyes said, motioning for them to be at ease. 'I don't know how much you know but, we're in a bit of a situation. Our engines need repairs but for that to happen, I need to get everyone I can off this boat and onto solid ground. Now, we've found a suitable planet but I want someone to go down and make sure it's suitable for sustaining life.

'Major Silva assured me you four were among the best he has at low profile recon missions.'

'True enough, sir,' Monty said. 'They don't call us the Sneaky Bastards for nothing.'

A ghost of a smile tugged at the captain's lips but was gone as quickly as it had arrived.

'You'll be inserted by drop pod to the planet's surface and from there, you will take samples of the atmosphere to see if there are any harmful substances in the air Cortana failed to detect,' Keyes continued.

'I didn't 'fail' to detect anything,' the AI said, seemingly coming from the Master Chief. 'It's just that with the rudimentary tools at my disposal, certain things may have been missed. Even a brilliant craftsman can be hampered by low quality equipment.'

'I'm sure, Cortana,' the captain said before turning to Monty. 'Once samples of the air have been taken, establish an LZ for follow up supplies and equipment then conduct a recon mission on a nearby town.'

'Town, sir?' Monty repeated. 'As in, we're not going to be alone down there?'

Keyes nodded. 'We have reason to believe that there's a sentient native lifeform down there and we want you to make contact to see how they'd feel to having a large marine and navy presence for a week or more.'

'Got it, sir,' Monty said, glancing at the still silent Spartan.

The captain caught the motion and looked the Master Chief's way as well.

'Yes, the Chief will be going down with you,' he said. 'And will have tactical command of the mission.

All four of the ODSTs bristled slightly at the news.

Relations between Helljumpers and Spartans were strained at the best of times, caused partly by the supersoldier program coming in and sweeping the all volunteer special forces branch aside as the best of the best, and partly by some kind of event from years back, way before the Human-Covenant War had even begun.

All Monty knew about it was an altercation had occurred between a Spartan and some Helljumpers, an altercation that had ended badly for the drop shock troopers, leaving a taste of bad blood between the two groups ever since.

If it bothered the Chief, he didn't show it though reading his body language was kind of difficult. What with the full face mirrored visor and half a ton of green armour covering every inch of his body. It would probably take someone who had known the Chief since his enlistment to pick up on whatever subtle tells he gave off.

'That's not going to be a problem, is it?' Keyes asked after several moments of silence.

'No, sir,' Monty said, his team giving nods of agreement. 'Just tell us which pods, when we drop, and give us the green light. I don't like my life being kept in the hands of the Navy. You guys are too clean.'

He paused a beat.

'No offense.'

Neither Captain Keyes or the Master Chief seemed offended.

'None taken, soldier,' Keyes said. 'I don't leaving my fate in the hands of ground pounders like yourself. Too dirty and rough.'

A small smirk cracked Monty's grizzled features.

'We're approaching the drop zone,' Cortana announced. 'I think we'd better get down there before Engineering starts complaining too much about holding off these repairs.'

'Agreed.'

Keyes withdrew his pipe and began walking to the doors as the four Helljumpers and lone Spartan made for their pods, securing all their equipment inside as they prepared for a combat drop.

'Good luck down there,' Keyes said as the pod hatches came down.

The five soldiers flashed him a brief thumbs up before he was gone, a steady beep counting down to the precise moment Cortana, or the computers onboard the _Autumn, _would blast them free of the aging ship and down into what could well be first contact with a peaceful alien race.

'_Wake me when we get down there_,' Suggs said over the COM. _'I might sleep through my alarm clock.'_

'Sure thing, Suggy,' Monty promised as the pods were blown clear of the _Autumn, _that sickening sensation of freefall tugging at him and precluding the sudden spike in heart rate and adrenaline as the flimsy metal pod plummeted to the nearest body of Earth.

It was almost like those old freefall rides at the theme parks. That burned like a meteor as it came down. And was made of flimsy ceramic materials. And fell from space.

Maybe it wasn't like a freefall tower after all.

Monty just tightened his restraints tight as his pod entered the outer layers of the atmosphere, feeling it tremble and shake as the internal heat began climbing rapidly.

He braced his boots against the floor as the five humans dropped feet first into a strange new world.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: ****I don't own My Little Pony or Halo. They belong to Hasbro and Bungie/Microsoft/343 Industries respectively.**

**Additional AN: (Looks at majority of reviews for first chapter) Cynical, aren't you?**

Chapter Two

**Canterlot, Equestria**

The night was Luna's domain, and, along with her duties of raising and lowering the moon, she was keenly aware of all things that entered the space around her world and even things beyond the view of even the most powerful of Equestria's telescopes.

She knew when a comet would be approaching the planet she called home, when a meteor shower would grace the night's sky with their fiery presence, and when something unnatural came near.

Equestria's Princess of the Night was residing in her room, lying atop a gilded cushion positioned to allow her a clear view of Canterlot and, further into the darkness, Ponyville, when she became aware of... _something _approaching Equestria.

It wasn't a comet or meteor, it was travelling too slowly to be either, and possessed a much more stable course to be some other random galactic junk.

No, whatever this thing was it was abundantly clear to Luna that it wasn't natural, but artificial.

Several different responses coursed through her mind, each jockeying for prime position at the forefront, but what broke through to be her main concern was not excitement, or anticipation, but concern.

An object not of Equestrian origin, something made by some other empire or race, was heading straight for Equestria and it was coming fast.

Did it contain those who made it? If so, were they friendly? Why were they coming here? Where had they come from?

Briefly, Luna worried that the approaching craft was unguided and drawn to Equestria by the gravitational pull, posing a dire threat if it were to land like a meteor. The craft weighed a few thousand tons, and was approaching at a high speed. Should it come closer, and not burn up in the thickening atmosphere, it could almost certainly destroy a far portion of whatever may be unfortunate enough to be nearby.

To do so, however, would require it to both avoid Luna and her sister's magical grasp, or break free somehow, but given how even Luna could move the moon around with ease, a craft weighing slightly more than thirty-thousand tons was a paltry challenge for either princess.

Her worries of it crashing onto Equestria were quickly assuaged with this realisation, though new worries arose when the craft slowed and placed itself into a stable orbit over Equestria, and five new objects fell from the larger one and headed straight for the planet.

This made Luna's worries grow immensely for two reasons.

Firstly, these new objects were too small and travelling too fast for her to properly grab and hold still, coming in at re-entry speeds, and secondly, they were heading straight for Ponyville.

The Alicorn rushed to her balcony and scanned the wayward horizon, where Ponyville itself was, and saw to her dismay five individual streaks of light coming straight down, angling for somewhere in the vast Everfree Forest.

Whatever items they possessed, whatever alien beings they contained, would be then lost in the wild and unforgiving growths that made the forest so infamous and deadly.

The five streaks vanished behind a hill, lost in the shadows, and Luna withdrew from her balcony, rushing to her sister's room.

Aliens had landed in Equestria, and they were perilously close to its newest ruler and Celestia's favourite student.

**Ponyville, Equestria**

Evening in Ponyville varied from day to day, week to week, depending on what the needs of the farms required.

Some nights, the sky was thick with clouds bulging with rain to aid with the crops and help the farmers grow their produce to sell and live off of.

Others, there were patches of cloud to keep the town cool at night without allowing all of the retained heat of the day to escape. These happened mainly during the colder months before winter came into being with full swing, but would occasionally happen in spring and summer.

But tonight was free of clouds, free of obstructions that might impede a pony's view of the sun as Princess Celestia lowered it, sometimes with minimal decor and sometimes with a small show of colours, and of the moon as Princess Luna raised it to signal that night had come again.

Across Ponyville, ponies wandered to and fro on late night errands, or met with friends for a drink, or simply enjoyed a walk through the rustic town as the street lights were lit.

Overhead a few Pegasi enjoyed a cool flight as they soaked in the best few anypony had of the setting sun as it began dipping below the western mountains, glowing a golden hue tinged with subtle pink and oranges.

A few stopped and stared as it happened before their attention was drawn to something higher in the sky, five individual balls of fire trailing acrid black smoke that seemingly descended towards Ponyville though the height at which the fireballs were falling was deceptive, and they soon touched down in the Everfree Forest, scant miles from Ponyville's outer limits.

Many believed they were meteorites, drawn to Equestria by its gravitational pull and allowed to travel through the atmosphere by the princesses in Canterlot as an added sunset spectacular, and resumed their activities.

While the landing of such things would normally be a cause for investigations and exploration, the late hour and the fact that searching for the five meteoroids would require going into the Everfree Forest deterred most and they made mental notes to go tomorrow, first light, and try to claim a space rock.

A few, though, didn't believe they were meteorites. They were too small to have survived the journey through the atmosphere. Anything huge would have been intercepted by Luna or, in more severe cases, Celestia.

Secondly, their grouping had been too uniform and precise to be the work of a random cluster of falling rocks. The universe was never so precise when left to its own devices. Two meteors might have come down within a few miles of one another, maybe three, but five clustered in a half-mile circle was not the work of nature.

It was only possible through the intervention of sentient beings.

One of the few to realise the meteors weren't natural was Twilight Sparkle, Equestria's latest Alicorn princess.

She had been on one of the numerous balconies her castle possessed, reading a book on astronomy, and watching the sun set when the fireballs appeared.

Her brow had furrowed and concern entered her mind, a trait not shared by the quickly appearing and enthusiastic Rainbow Dash who swooped in from somewhere over Ponyville and hovered next to Twilight.

'Hey, Twilight, did you see those things?' the Pegasus mare said, hoof waving off in the direction of the forest that had been graced with the presence of five non-terrestrial objects. 'Cool, huh? I mean, they were on _fire_ so they couldn't have been that cool but come on. Rocks falling from the sky?' She did a brief loop-de-loop. 'This. Is so. Awesome!'

Twilight sighed and used her magic to close her book, levitating it inside, and went to the balcony's edge, peering into the darkness where the meteor-like objects had fallen.

There was no smoke, no sign of a rapidly growing fire, no sign of anything, really.

'No, Rainbow Dash, it isn't awesome,' Twilight said. 'Five unknown things just landed on Equestria, right outside town!'

'Yeah, but, they're rocks,' Rainbow Dash said back, landing next to the Alicorn. 'Rocks that fell from the sky, sure, but that's it. I don't know why you're making such a big fuss.'

'They're not meteoroids,' Twilight said. 'Their grouping was too close to each other and judging from their size, I don't think they're made of rock, either. A big meteor could have broken up high in the atmosphere and the pieces could have fallen down at similar velocities, but their flight paths would have had them spreading _away _from each other, not staying close.'

'Uh, Twilight?' Rainbow Dash said. 'What are you talking about?'

'I'm talking about their fall,' the Alicorn said, hoof jabbing into the darkening night sky where the faint remains of five smoking trails could just barely be seen, quickly dissipating in a gentle breeze. 'It was too consistent and not chaotic. Whatever just fell to Equestria was not a random lump of space rock. It's something completely different.'

Twilight expected to see some kind of concern in her friend's face, fear maybe, at being told five objects, not meteors, had landed on the outskirts of town.

Instead, and what Twilight should have expected from her exuberant friend, excitement and anticipation spread across Rainbow Dash's face.

'You mean, something alien might have just landed outside of Equestria?' she squealed, hooves to her cheeks. 'As in, an alien civilisation?'

'Well, yes?'

What followed caught Twilight off guard as Rainbow Dash squealed again and took to the skies again with a single flap of her wings, blasting off to the edge of Ponyville with another flap.

**Outskirts of Ponyville, near the Everfree Forest**

Rainbow Dash slowed her pace, coming to an eventual halt on the demarcation line between Equestria and the Everfree Forest, scanning the darkened woodlands for any sign of anything that was alien.

The thought of her, _the _Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in all of Equestria, making first contact with an alien race was simply too awesome to put into words.

But, alas, the universe seemed determined to keep Rainbow Dash from being the first ever Equestrian to meet with a non-terrestrial being.

The Pegasus saw only trees shrouded in shadow, darkness, and the gently swaying leaves as they were caught by the night time breeze.

Undeterred, Rainbow Dash flew closer to where the five fireballs had landed, hoping to spot their point where they'd gone through the canopy.

It wouldn't be too hard, she reasoned. After all, there'd be gaping holes and broken branches in an otherwise pristine sea of treetops.

**2247 Hours, September 12, 2552 (Military Calendar) / Unknown Forest**

'_Got eyes on one,' _Suggs radioed from his position somewhere in the trees. '_Blue, airborne, flight pattern suggests searching for something.'_

'Yeah, us no doubt,' Monty radioed back as he, Redmond, Donny and the Master Chief stripped the five pods of all their supplies. 'Keep an eyeball on it, Corporal.'

'_Acknowledged.'_

'Is he always that terse?' Cortana asked, broadcasting on the Chief's armour's speakers as the Spartan wordlessly clipped a number of magazines into place.

'Usually,' Donny said. 'Don't think I've ever heard him swear once in all the years I've known him. Dude is an ice cube.'

'I beg to differ,' Redmond said as he sifted through the MREs. 'I heard they assembled him back at sniper school out of dead Marines and the processor from a computer, all blended together into one fuck ugly son of a bitch.'

'_I heard that,' _Suggs said. '_And you're wrong.'_

'Wrong how?'

'_My mother was a whore.'_

Redmond snorted, as did Monty and Donny, but neither the Chief nor Cortana joined in.

It was a private joke between squadmates, not meant for outsiders.

'_Blue Flier moving,' _Suggs warned, ending the laughter. '_Course puts it heading your way, ETA damn quick. Shall I engage?'_

'Negative,' the Chief said. 'Maintain observation, corporal. Alert us if more come our way.' To the rest of the squad, he said, 'Pack it up, Helljumpers. We're moving out to find a new base camp.'

'You mind us why, Chief?' Monty asked. 'Skipper wants us to make contact, don't he? Why we running and hiding?'

'Our mission is recon, Staff,' the Chief said. 'I don't want to walk into that town without performing some observations of it first. We'll set up a few kilometres to the east, wait for first light, then perform our initial observations and establish an LZ. Unless you'd prefer the five of us blindly charge into town.'

'Depends on how much I'm being paid,' the Staff Sergeant said. 'But yeah, recon for the moment sounds good. Suggs, you're on point. Head east a few klicks, find a place to bed down, then secure.'

He looked to the Spartan. 'Unless you want him deployed in a different way, Chief.'

The Master Chief shook his head. 'They're your squad, Staff Sergeant. You know their best configuration.'

Monty nodded.

'Alright, boys. Staggered column, forming up on Suggs. We're moving out to find us a new home,' he ordered. 'Eyes and ears open. We don't know what to expect down here so be ready for anything.'

A bank of green lights flashed back at him and the five man team set off into the forest, disappearing into the trees as the blue flier Suggs had seen passed by one of the holes created by their drop pods.

Donny paused and looked at it, then shrugged and scurried to catch up with his squad.

**Outskirts of Ponyville, near the Everfree Forest**

There were no signs of alien life around the pod, much to Rainbow Dash's dismay as she spotted one of the entry holes she'd predicted would be in the canopy, but the fact that the pod had been built by an alien race almost made up for it.

She hovered overhead, seeing something move out the corner of her eye, but it was gone just as quickly as she could turn her full attention to the specific spot.

There was a slight rustle of leaves, maybe, and black moving on black, maybe, but little else.

The mare dropped to the ground, hooves gently touching down on the damp forest floor, and slowly approached the pod as it ticked, likely the material it was made of cooling down after its fall from orbit.

Rainbow Dash saw that a door was lying in front of it, parts of it made from glass, and that there was a chair nestled in the centre of the whole thing.

She guessed, judging from the amount of space inside the pod and the size of the chair, the aliens, wherever they may be, were bigger than the average pony, and probably bipeds, too.

She stepped closer, hoof reaching out to touch the outer shell of the pod as it cooled and contracted, when a voice behind her made the Pegasus jump.

'What do you think you're doing?' Twilight half yelled, coming in for a hasty landing beside Rainbow Dash. 'You shouldn't be touching that. We don't know what'll happen if we do.'

'Relax, Twi,' Rainbow said, trying to act normal despite the fact her heart was racing along after being startled by her friend. 'This thing's just a pod thingy. It's not alive.'

'But we don't know if the metal it's made from is toxic to us,' Twilight countered. 'We don't know anything about it, and until we can take it to a lab and examine it, I don't think we should just touch everything in sight.'

Rainbow Dash looked at her friend, at the lack of any protective equipment the egghead was wearing, and said, 'If you're so worried, why aren't you wearing anything to, you know, protect yourself?'

'Magical health bubble,' Twilight said. 'Anything that might cause my health to deteriorate, natural or not, get's repelled by it.'

'Uh huh,' the Pegasus said. 'So I'm going to go out on a limb here and say curiosity got the better of you too, huh?'

'Actually, I'm here to make sure you don't do anything that might jeopardise any future diplomatic relations we might have with this aliens,' Twilight said, walking closer to the pod. 'Knowing you, you'd be over the top, speak almost as quickly as Pinkie Pie, and pester them to no end.'

Rainbow Dash looked at her friend, hurt, and said, 'Would not.'

'Remember how you acted around the Crystal Ponies?'

'Well, yeah, I do, Twi,' she said. 'But come one, they weren't aliens. Sure, they turned see through when we jogged their memories, but they were still ponies.'

Twilight went uh-huh, scrutinising the discarded door and a number of dark windows it possessed.

'And your approach to questioning them didn't send any running for cover, did it?' the Alicorn said.

'No.'

'But it was in their face,' Twilight said, moving onto the interior of the pod. 'Not a lot of room in here, is there?'

'Why would there be?' Rainbow Dash said, joining her friend. 'They're only using it to get from orbit to down here. It's not like they're spending much time inside it.'

Twilight hummed in thought then turned away from the inside of the pod and turned her gaze downwards to the floor, her horn lighting up to illuminate the area in a bright purple glow.

'Bipeds,' she said after a moment, studying two shallow impressions.

'I kinda figured that,' Rainbow Dash said. 'Can you imagine if me or you tried to sit in that thing?'

She gestured with her head at the seat but Twilight didn't see it.

'The creature inside that pod jumped out and walked over here,' Twilight said, following a faint trail. 'Where it stood for a little while, kneeled, and met up with three of the aliens, one of which has a different kind of footprint.'

Rainbow Dash peered at the footprint Twilight was examining, and said, 'So what if it's got a different footprint? I bet you and me have different hoof prints.'

'I'm only making an observation,' Twilight said. 'One of the aliens leaves behind a different impression, and is a great deal heavier, too. Notice how the imprint is a lot deeper than the others?'

Rainbow Dash looked at the footprint again but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

'I'll take your word for it,' she said.

Something caught the Alicorn's eye and she moved off, heading to one side of the clearing.

'They moved, and headed that way,' Twilight said, pointing her hoof through a gap in the trees. 'Away from their landing spot.'

'Any idea why?' Rainbow Dash asked.

'No,' Twilight said. 'Best guess? They're waiting for something, likely morning, before coming into Ponyville or are just watching, waiting, before making a move.'

Though the prospect of meeting aliens seemed cooler than anything, the thought of them watching her made Rainbow Dash shudder in revulsion.

'I don't think I'm getting much sleep tonight,' the mare said. 'Not if I might be watched by some aliens.'

'I thought you really wanted to meet them?' Twilight said back, walking along the supposed path the four aliens had taken before deciding against it.

'Meet? Yes,' Rainbow said. 'But being watched by them when I'm at home?'

She shuddered again.

'So what's the plan, Twi? We gonna track them down, have a face to face?'

'No, we'll wait,' Twilight said, taking flight with a flap of her wings, followed a second later by Rainbow Dash. 'If these aliens wanted to meet, they would have either stayed near their pods or come out to Ponyville straight away. Instead, they went into the forest before we could arrive. I think it'll be best to let them come to us.'

'But aren't you the least bit curious, Twilight?' Rainbow Dash asked. 'They're aliens, for crying out loud.'

'I'm curious, yes, but it might be best to give them some space. Who knows how they would have reacted if we'd tracked them down and confronted them.'

The pair hovered above Ponyville, backs to the town as they watched the forest one last time.

'They'll come out when the time is right, I'm sure, so rushing them might not be the best move, diplomatically speaking,' Twilight said. 'Meet me and the rest of the girls at my place tomorrow, and we'll sort a plan out then. Okay?'

Rainbow Dash grumbled but nodded, speeding off to her cloud home and leaving Twilight to return to her castle.

**2302 Hours, September 12, 2552 (Military Calendar) / Unknown Forest**

The Master Chief tracked the two fliers for as long as possible, allowing his parabolic microphones to pick up their conversation and giving Cortana something to work with.

'Any idea what they're saying?' he asked.

'No,' the AI replied. 'We barely understand what the Covenant are saying, so how do you expect me to know what two alien ponies are saying during our first encounter?'

'I assumed you would,' the Chief said. 'You act like you know everything.'

'Ah, such is the folly of being a being or pure intellect,' Cortana said as the Chief gave the go ahead for Monty and his men to carry on. 'I expect you have a plan for dealing with our new neighbours?'

'Yes,' the Master Chief said. 'We'll observe them for a few days then make initial contact. I want to know what kind of reaction we'd get before calling in the Pelicans.'

'It'll be anywhere from abject terror to welcoming us with open arms,' Cortana replied. 'Or, in this case, hooves.'

'Better welcoming than the last alien race we came across gave us,' Monty said. 'Hey, a whole new alien race! Let's kill it because they're an affront to this religion we blindly follow.' He snorted. 'Fucking Covies.'

'So long as we don't turn into them, Staff Sergeant,' the Master Chief said.

'Nah, I like ponies,' Monty said, looking back over his shoulder at the Spartan. 'My niece loves them. Probably get jealous when I tell her I met sentient ones.'

'_Eyes on suitable spot,' _Suggs radioed. '_Good cover, got a stream, decent view of the nearby town.'_

'Secure it, Corporal,' the Master Chief replied. 'We'll make it our camp and begin recon. Rotate watch and observation every three hours.'

Green lights winked back at him as the Helljumpers acknowledged the order, zeroing in on Suggs and their new home for the next few days.

Monty took first watch, taking the sniper rifle from Suggs and perching himself on top of a flat rock that afforded him a good view of the far off structures and the inhabitants that flew around it.

Within the next few days, they'd walk in and introduce themselves.


End file.
